GAME UI

User Interface, HUD & menu design

Thanks to Straight Down the Middle for the video! (Content Warning: Mild Animated Violence)

big buck hunter: Reloaded

More ways to play than you can shake a stick at

Redesigning the interface of a 20+ year old franchise is a big undertaking — and not just because players around the world had grown used to it. In that time, the game had accumulated a staggering amount of content, including a number of non-hunting side campaigns, each with its own art style and game flow.

To solve for this content challenge and keep the game accessible to players of all skill levels, I turned to the world’s most ubiquitous content management platforms: streaming services. By drawing inspiration from their common aesthetics and behaviors, I could create a flow that was new, but familiar.

The result is a system that is simple, responsive, and allows the content to sell itself as large, interactive “posters” that scroll horizontally as your reticle approaches the edge of the screen. Choosing your preferred way to play suddenly feels as comfortable as finding your favorite show.

Big Buck Hunter® is a registered trademark of Play Mechanix, Inc.

NFL QB SHOOTOUT

tom brady who?

After the success of Big Buck Hunter: Marksman on the Skillz mobile platform, our team was made aware of a developer contest for the rights to the NFL license. With a fire under our butts, we set out to take what we had learned during our foray into mobile hunting and spin it into an experience that handed you a football instead of a rifle. How could we make players of all skill levels feel the pressure and thrill of being an NFL quarterback?

For me and my team, that began with a UI that emulated the glossy, hyper-produced aesthetic of an NFL broadcast. I wanted to make you feel like you weren’t just playing football, but were playing globally televised football. After pouring over style guides and video clips, I landed on a shape, lighting, and material language that managed to capture the gravitas of what’s found on major sports networks, but was uniquely ours.

Our small team won the contest, beating several veteran mobile development studios, and NFL QB Shootout has earned consistently high reviews among players.

© 2023 NFL Enterprises LLC. NFL and the NFL shield design are registered trademarks of the National Football League. The team names, logos and uniform designs are registered trademarks of the teams indicated.

Thanks to DewRagen for the video! (Content Warning: Mild Animated Violence)

TERMINATOR SALVATION

MACHINE LEARNING

As one of the first major motion picture tie-ins in my career, this project had a lot to prove. To serve the source material and reflect the conflict between the humans and Skynet, I challenged myself to create an animated interface that was both scrappy and technical.

Bolted together pieces of found metal are interrupted by cold, robotic elements that transform and unfold with the percussive energy of a marching Terminator. Transmissions from John Connor’s resistance members come in on glitchy, hacked channels before the feed is intercepted and cut.

The combined effect makes you feel surrounded, but defiant.

The game proved to be a a huge success, setting new standards for dynamic UI design at Play Mechanix — and was eventually ported to Big Buck Hunter: Reloaded as an optional game mode.

Thanks to Betson for the video!

BARREL OF MONKEYS

good, clean fun

To make the arcade adaptation of this classic game as appealing to families as possible, we kept the focus on the fun. Menus were purposely pared down to keep the focus squarely on the monkeys, but knowing how many you’ve linked and how many tickets each was worth is important info - especially the legendary Golden Monkey! That said, we designed a simple interface that avoided interfering with gameplay as much as possible while complementing the lively, kinetic world we built.

Late in development, Hasbro informed us that they were relaunching their classic game with a new mascot, Cheeky the Monkey. It was too late to incorporate him into the gameplay itself, but I was able to create a 2D rig and animate him, just as I had with the in-game monkeys, and add him to the game’s attract mode loop. There, he’s able to catch the eyes of new players during title screens and scene transitions.

Hasbro approved this approach and the game continues to be a fan favorite.